On an October Saturday, I drove from Dorchester, where our #ARTSTASYSHERE Coalition was born from years of volunteer advocacy to prevent Humphreys Street Studios and its 45 plus studio artists from displacement, to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, about 50 miles northwest of Boston. Fitchburg, like other Massachusetts “gateway cities,” once was a thriving home to the industrial manufacturing of tools, paper and firearms, with the companies’ machinery powered by waters of the Nashua River. In eastern Massachusetts, the #ARTSTAYSHERE Coalition is helping preserve art/music/cultural workspaces, the result of soaring property values and owners selling when high. Over the last 18 months alone, we’ve advocated to preserve or relocate dozens of artists from 119 Braintree Street (Allston), over 700 musicians from the former Sound Museum (Brighton), over 60 artists at Joy Street Studios (Somerville) … [Read more...] about ABANDONED NO LONGER: ARTIST HOUSING SEEN AS ANCHOR FOR FITCHBURG’S FUTURE
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THE ESSEX EXPERIENCE: ARTHOUND GALLERY ENCHANCES VERMONT’S CREATIVE ECONOMY
When John and Jennifer Churchman opened the ArtHound Gallery in Essex, Vermont in the Fall of 2019, it was one of the largest in New England. Since then, they have added more gallery space and with 13,000 square feet of light-filled interior, it is ‘the’ largest. That kind of space makes it possible for them to include more than 350 Vermont artists — including painters, sculptors, glass blowers, potters, woodworkers and many artisans. The roster includes well established names as well as emerging artists. The ArtHound Gallery is in a central location in what was formerly a shopping enclave and has been reborn as The Essex Experience — all but one establishment is local and devoted to just that, an experience, whether that be art gallery hopping, fine dining, sipping wine, chilling in a salt spa or enjoying musical concerts on the green. Both the gallery and the marketplace … [Read more...] about THE ESSEX EXPERIENCE: ARTHOUND GALLERY ENCHANCES VERMONT’S CREATIVE ECONOMY
THE ART OF ADVOCACY: WHAT IT IS, WHO’S DOING IT, ROADBLOCKS & RESOLUTIONS
WHAT IS ARTS ADVOCACY? According to Miriam-Webster, the definition of advocacy is “the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal.” So, if we’re talking about supporting the arts — and in Massachusetts — then there’s a handful of folks pursuing various kinds of arts advocacy. Sometimes the cause is more funding for the arts, other times it’s about fair pay for artists. Now it’s for protecting cultural spaces. WHO’S DOING WHAT: NATIONALLY, REGIONALLY, LOCALLY Nationally, Americans for the Arts holds the top arts advocacy position. In Massachusetts, we have MassCreative, whose primary job is to advocate for increased funding for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The MCC offers grants, services and professional development resources. It also advocates for the arts, along with other organizations including Mass Humanities, the Arts & Business Council of Greater … [Read more...] about THE ART OF ADVOCACY: WHAT IT IS, WHO’S DOING IT, ROADBLOCKS & RESOLUTIONS
THE RAPID ADVANCES OF DIGITAL ART: MASARY STUDIOS BRING THEIR WAVEFORMS TO NEW AUDIENCES
In a city where technology thrives, digital art is advancing fast, and would make the Lumière Brothers very proud. It is not an optical illusion, magic or mind trick. It is digital art. Grab your Google or Apple glasses and download apps to see augmented reality (AR) or simply not; look around. Digital art is everywhere and has been rapidly breaking ground, expanding into our everyday lives and naked eyes. It is that simple, if you have a cell phone, you experience digital art daily. So, let’s embrace, dive into and enjoy it. The inception of digital art can be traced back to the mid-1900s, with experiments done by computer scientists, engineers and mathematicians, naturally the only ones with access to the necessary machines. The medium evolved during the following decades through visual compositionmainly generated by mathematical calculations until the 1980s, when the … [Read more...] about THE RAPID ADVANCES OF DIGITAL ART: MASARY STUDIOS BRING THEIR WAVEFORMS TO NEW AUDIENCES
PRESERVATION ACT
In this series’ previous features, we saw the unlikely success of Humphreys Street Studios (Dorchester) and the Arts and Business Council’s preserving Western Avenue Studios in Lowell — two different solutions to one long-term, systemic problem: artist displacement. In this issue, we explore the impact of displacement on individual artists, artist communities and the regional arts ecosystem. We also note that arts displacement is a symptom of an insecure cultural ecosystem — and to solve it, we must address it holistically. Each part of the ecosystem — from higher education (MassArt, Berklee, BoCo, Lesley, RISD and others) to state/local government, corporations, foundations, museums, galleries, concert venues, theatres, publications — all stakeholders in our sector — must come together with one goal: to stop cultural displacement. We must preserve what we have, build more of what we … [Read more...] about PRESERVATION ACT
A SOLUTION TO ARTS DISPLACEMENT
Arts displacement, although a systemic, chronic problem in Greater Boston, also takes toll outside the metropolitan area, in once industrial Massachusetts cities like Worcester, Lowell, New Bedford and Salem. The Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC), whose initiatives include Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Business on Board, artist fellowships, and others, including Creative Campus, its solution to creating and/or preserving arts/cultural spaces. It is currently partnering with Creative Hub Worcester, transforming a historic Boys Club into artist workspaces and public gallery/performance spaces. THE CULTURAL SOUL OF LOWELL Last year, the A&BC acquired one of New England’s gems: Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, so it could stay as an affordable home to hundreds of artists across multiple disciplines. Coined “the creative soul of Lowell,” it hosts one of … [Read more...] about A SOLUTION TO ARTS DISPLACEMENT